Numbering woes

[Henry Stock]

I have been told by persons on this and other groups that it is better to
use styles when numbering paragraphs rather than justing using the numbering
button on the toolbar. I am having some problems though that I do not fully
understand and to which I have found no solution as of yet.

I am trying to revise a approximate 300 page document, locating all the
places where the previous writer just turnned on numbering and turned it off
without using styles and to replace those instances with a numbered
paragraph style. When I do this the following things happen

1. I select the text and apply the numbered style
2. The paragraphs take the new style, but the numbering often is not what it
was.
3. More often than not I just want the numbering to restart from 1, but in
most cases the default appears to be a continuation of numbering from the
last set of numbered paragraphs even though there are sever paragraphs in
between.
4. I choose to to restart numbering by right-clicking the selected text and
selecting "Restart numbering" with mixed results. Somtimes it works.
Sometimes nothing changes.
5. Sometimes I try to choose "Continue Numbering" and it not only
continues from the last numbered set of paragraphs, but from it renumbers
from way back in the document.

I don't know how Microsoft implemented the paragraph numbering, but it is
really buggy.

If anybody has some useful suggestions on how to better manage the numbering
of paragraphs, like how toset the default for a style to restart numbering,
I would really like to hear from you.

 

[Chuck Henrich]

You're not alone in wondering what Microsoft was up to when they devised
their paragraph numbering approach. Fortunately there's lots of experience
available in this newsgroup to help you sort yourself out. I'm sure you'll
get expert help from a number of people in addition to the thoughts below.

Using paragraph numbering styles is the way to go, but you need to
understand a little bit about how they work. Paragraph numbering styles rely
on "list templates" which contain information are attached to paragraph
styles. See below for some links explaining how numbered paragraph styles
and list templates work.

It's normal behaviour for paragraph numbering to continue even if there are
intervening non-numbered paragraphs - provided the non-numbered paragraphs
aren't in the same numbered style. A crude example:

1. Level 1 numbered style
2. Level 1 numbered style
(a) Level 2 numbered style
Non-numbered indented style
(b) Level 2 numbered style
Non-numbered indented style
3. Level 1 numbered style
Non-numbered indented style
4. Level 4 numbered style

etc

The numbered styles increment based on the number of the previous paragraph
in that style, not the immediately preceding paragraph.

In addition to the information you'll find in articles like the ones linked
below, I personally have found that it is *crucial* to _name_ list templates.
For tips on this subject here's a link to a previous thread
http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...6c481c-af97-4d05-92c0-3f8594cee65c&sloc=en-us

There may be some differences of opinion on this subject. You'll need to
experiment to see what works for you.

Since I started naming list templates and making sure they're properly
attached to the relevant styles, I've had no problems with paragraph
numbering. None. The only times I've had problems is with older docs where
the named list templates weren't attached to the paragraph styles linked to
named list templates or situations where the named list template didn't exist
in the document (there are ways to fix that). But updating the styles and
reapplying them has solved any legacy problems.

The problem you mention about numbered paragraph styles continuing numbering
from a previous location in the document can occur because the styles aren't
linked to the same list template - there can be many list templates that look
the same in a document but aren't identical. If your style isn't linked to a
named list template then you're relying on Word to decide what it thinks
might be the right list template, and as I'm sure you've discovered, Word is
far from infallible. However, if your paragraph style is linked to a named
list template this doesn't happen.

Sometimes applying a numbered paragraph style to a numbered paragraph
doesn't seem to work - the style doesn't appear to "take". I've found
applying Normal style to that problem paragraph and then re-applying the the
(corrected) numbered paragraph style does the trick.

A few suggestions for further research:

A pretty good article on the subject is on the MVPS site:
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm

Another site you might want to visit:
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html

For some ideas about restarting paragraph numbering check out this article
on the MVPS site:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ListRestartMethods.htm

Hope this helps

 

[Chuck Henrich]

Sorry there was a typo in my previous post.
4. Level 4 numbered style
should read
4. Level 1 numbered style
Sorry for any confusion

 

[Stefan Blom]

1. I select the text and apply the numbered style
2. The paragraphs take the new style, but the numbering often is not
what it
was.

Try pressing Ctrl+q in order to reset paragraph formatting to style.

3. More often than not I just want the numbering to restart from 1,
but in
most cases the default appears to be a continuation of numbering
from the
last set of numbered paragraphs even though there are sever
paragraphs in
between.
4. I choose to to restart numbering by right-clicking the selected
text and
selecting "Restart numbering" with mixed results. Somtimes it
works.
Sometimes nothing changes.

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ListRestartMethods.htm

5. Sometimes I try to choose "Continue Numbering" and it not only
continues from the last numbered set of paragraphs, but from it
renumbers
from way back in the document.

Again, resetting to style (Ctrl+q) is a better approach.